State of State of Affairs: The One Where Everything Happens

I refrained from titling this post with any reference to ‘blown away’ or ‘blowing things up’ or ‘explodes'1 and something tells me NBC Standards and Practices had to enforce the same on the promo writers. Broadcast TV remains in an uneasy space with regards to depictions of terrorism – trying to make exciting TV while not sensationalizing things, in the wrong way, that is; such is the fine line now walked.

Additionally, I don’t think it would have been fair to emphasize the actual ‘sploding part of this week’s State of Affairs, not when a terrible set of puns involving ‘blow’ could equally be applied to the eight or so other significant plot developments, in ways both positive and un-.

I’ve figured out how State of Affairs manages to pack an impressive amount of plot into every hour and yet still my mind wanders to trying to figure out the nature of this stain on my shirt2 – they don’t let anything land. Maybe this is good, maybe I’ve given most of the actors way too much credit, and asking them to put emotion behind lines would be a recipe for delicious, delicious disaster. Maybe not. All I know is this episode had the following, which was an awesomely bonkers amount of stuff to include, and yet I’ve determined this is probably peppermint tea, which, come to think of it shouldn’t stain, so maybe it’s something else:

introduction of an important Senate adversary;

replacement (due to her being ‘sploded) of previous important Senate adversary;

…just after she came thisclose to blowing the lid off the whole thing;

thanks to the tall guy having been the one who sent the threatening texts (remember that storyline?);

tall guy getting fired;

tall guy getting hired by the company with the awesomely slick/pretty satellite hacker/operative (remember that storyline?);

the First Gentleman being connected somehow to the previous important Senate adversary;

the First Gentleman actually suggesting to the President a far-reaching conspiracy to kill the previously important Senate adversary;

LIE DETECTOR TESTS for the entire PDB/Bellerophon team;

spy stuff;

MAJOR movement on the Whatshisprettyface storyline. Like, huge. Really, I only followed half of it and it was still worth the episode;

six or so back and forths between Charlie and Whatshisprettyface (Nick, btw) as to whether Charlie’s asset can be trusted;

a lot of West Wing-level intense-faces-equal-smart-words dialogue between Charlie and Ray;

a sorority girl suicide bombing a CIA safehouse.

Drop the mic, State of Affairs. Even with no Jack this episode, you’ve wowed me into submission with the sheer volume of whatever just happened.

This Week’s AwesomeFactor: Well, the Emmy clip of POTUS steely-eye-ing“Do you trust your team? You shouldn’t.” was pretty awesome, but c’mon – a stabbed in the gut by a giant piece of glass Nestor Carbonell thinking only of checking for survivors after a suicide bombing? There we go.

Level of Ridiculousness Meter: 1) How do they know someone’s never been on an untraceable network? Can this CIA prove a negative? That would be something. 2) The CIA director’s strategy for assuring all is well should never be telling someone “This better be the last secret.”

Secretly Bananas Meter: Good lord, I have no idea what happened over the last hour, so let’s go with 18 out of a possible [12c].

Also ‘Mumford and Sons’, but there I refrained because it has nothing to do with this show. ↵